CPS anti-violence program takes off, slowly

June 03, 2010

As CJ lay in a hospital last winter nursing a gunshot wound to his arm, the prospect of graduating from high school seemed a distant dream for the skinny Roseland teen.

Mostly left to his own devices, he had drifted to the streets at an early age and often skipped school, since attending class required crossing a web of gang lines that conflicted with his own affiliations.

Five months later, CJ rarely misses a day, participates in class and is on track to graduate.

He credits his turnaround to an ambitious program launched by Chicago Public Schools this school year to stem youth violence. The teen has been paired with an advocate -- equal parts teacher, father figure and counselor -- to assist him in everything from transportation to finding employment.

"I used to have a real bad attitude problem," said CJ, who asked that he not be identified by his full name. "(My advocate) taught me to consider finding out every detail in a situation, to take my time and continue to think about different outlooks."

In September, the district announced the unprecedented two-year, $60 million initiative to keep kids safe in and out of school. But despite the promise of isolated pieces of the program, its larger impact is impossible to tally as it nears the halfway mark. Youth homicides and shootings have dipped this year, but it's difficult to credit the anti-violence initiative because so much of it is still in the planning stages.

"It's been a little slow in rolling out, but I'd rather be slow and have it be right than have people getting grants that aren't doing anything," said the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church on the South Side.

To date, the district has launched pilot programs in key schools, set up a communication center to help police and educators collaborate to interrupt flare-ups in and around schools, and paired advocates with more than 200 teens deemed most likely to get shot.

But efforts this year have focused more on planning than implementation, according to Josh Gray, the deputy for the violence prevention initiative.

After months of preparation, bidding and a deliberate evaluation process, the district is set to name a host of contractors this summer. They will include community groups who are to help students get to and from school safely as well as others who will enter the most troubled 38 high schools to instill a "culture of calm." District data showed that 80 percent of the students who were shot came from these schools.